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American Morning

Interview With Sen. Jay Rockefeller

Aired June 05, 2003 - 08:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq continues, the debate intensifying here in the U.S., and especially on Capitol Hill, about whether or not evidence of banned weapons was manipulated or exaggerated to help build the case for war. The Senate Intelligence Committee wants to review classified White House documents before deciding on whether or not hearings on prewar intelligence should be held, possibly public, maybe not.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, is live with us today on Capitol Hill.

Nice to see you in person, Senator.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Thank you, Bill.

HEMMER: Hearings, are we going to get them?

ROCKEFELLER: I hope we will and we're in discussion about that now. It's very fluid. I, you know, we have something called a doctrine of preemption. That's our national policy, President Bush's policy. If that means that you are going to go into Iraq or into Iran or into North Korea or whatever happens in the future, it puts an absolute premium on having superb intelligence. The intelligence has to be well done. It has to be unbiased. It has to be untampered with and it may very well be. But we need to know that.

HEMMER: What is your suggestion? Is it that the White House took the evidence and manipulated it for their own good or is the suggestion that the intelligence perhaps was not as thorough in the beginning?

ROCKEFELLER: No, I'm making neither assumption. What I am making is the assumption and the knowledge that the intelligence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was the basis on which the whole vote was taken to go to the Security Council, etc. Therefore, the need for superb and accurate intelligence is completely critical, even more so under a doctrine of preemption, because that means we could go to other places and therefore before we go in, we have to really know what the situation is, what we're going to be up against.

HEMMER: Some people would suggest that hearings even to talk about it right now should be off the table simply because there has not been enough time -- seven, eight weeks since the war ended. There are those who suggest this thing could be a matter of not just months, but maybe even years before they're found. How much credence do you give to that argument?

ROCKEFELLER: It could very well be. I mean we, from my point of view, we've really found nothing to -- of very much to this point of significance. We could find something in two weeks. We could find something in two or three months. But it doesn't make any difference. The question is that we went into this war based upon primarily ties with al Qaeda on the part of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction posing an imminent threat to our country. And so we need to know whether that intelligence was, in fact, accurate and whether it was done in the proper manner.

HEMMER: OK, so then let's say these hearings get under way. Would they be public?

ROCKEFELLER: My own view is that the American people have every right to have some participation in this. And that's a matter of discussion right now between a number of us who are trying to decide about this. But basically I think having -- if you have hearings and there isn't any openness to the public, basically you're just doing it inside lead enclosed secret rooms and it doesn't really have a lot of meaning.

HEMMER: Sir, then the second question, then, is if you have these hearings, the question you want to know is what? What answer does Senator Rockefeller want to find out about the intelligence that was on hand prior to the war?

ROCKEFELLER: I want to know that the intelligence that was collected prior to the war, prior to the vote on that resolution, was accurate, was well done, was untampered with and I have no reason to know that -- think that it was. I was worried when I read this morning that the -- which I had known -- that the vice president made a number of trips to the CIA with Scooter Libby, his top assistant. What was he doing there? That's not really our business, but it gives you...

HEMMER: Does that strike you as unusual though?

ROCKEFELLER: Yes, it does.

HEMMER: How so? The vice president involved in the national security matters and...

ROCKEFELLER: Intelligence is an executive agency, but the CIA and George Tenet, in whom I have enormous confidence, are really meant to be left alone to do their work. Analysts are a very special breed of people who are, who take pride, who know what they do and they're not a part of the political process. They do not make policy. They only do analysis. Then it's given over to the policymakers, who decide what to do.

HEMMER: I'm going to hit you on one more thing here before we run out of time.

They're excavating a site in west Baghdad again as of this week. Does that suggest perhaps that now there is intelligence that nothing has been seen or hear from Saddam Hussein, that he may have been in that building back in early April when it was hit by those four 2,000 pounds bombs?

ROCKEFELLER: Bill, my assumption on all of that has to be that until I know he's dead, I'm going to assume he's alive. Now, they're making that investigation. They have DNA. Will they be able to find something that corresponds to that DNA, any body part, anything in there? I simply don't know.

HEMMER: You don't know.

Senator Rockefeller, thank you, and we'll get your counterpart on next hour and see where we go from here.

ROCKEFELLER: Good.

HEMMER: Appreciate your time this morning.

ROCKEFELLER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 5, 2003 - 08:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq continues, the debate intensifying here in the U.S., and especially on Capitol Hill, about whether or not evidence of banned weapons was manipulated or exaggerated to help build the case for war. The Senate Intelligence Committee wants to review classified White House documents before deciding on whether or not hearings on prewar intelligence should be held, possibly public, maybe not.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, is live with us today on Capitol Hill.

Nice to see you in person, Senator.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Thank you, Bill.

HEMMER: Hearings, are we going to get them?

ROCKEFELLER: I hope we will and we're in discussion about that now. It's very fluid. I, you know, we have something called a doctrine of preemption. That's our national policy, President Bush's policy. If that means that you are going to go into Iraq or into Iran or into North Korea or whatever happens in the future, it puts an absolute premium on having superb intelligence. The intelligence has to be well done. It has to be unbiased. It has to be untampered with and it may very well be. But we need to know that.

HEMMER: What is your suggestion? Is it that the White House took the evidence and manipulated it for their own good or is the suggestion that the intelligence perhaps was not as thorough in the beginning?

ROCKEFELLER: No, I'm making neither assumption. What I am making is the assumption and the knowledge that the intelligence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was the basis on which the whole vote was taken to go to the Security Council, etc. Therefore, the need for superb and accurate intelligence is completely critical, even more so under a doctrine of preemption, because that means we could go to other places and therefore before we go in, we have to really know what the situation is, what we're going to be up against.

HEMMER: Some people would suggest that hearings even to talk about it right now should be off the table simply because there has not been enough time -- seven, eight weeks since the war ended. There are those who suggest this thing could be a matter of not just months, but maybe even years before they're found. How much credence do you give to that argument?

ROCKEFELLER: It could very well be. I mean we, from my point of view, we've really found nothing to -- of very much to this point of significance. We could find something in two weeks. We could find something in two or three months. But it doesn't make any difference. The question is that we went into this war based upon primarily ties with al Qaeda on the part of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction posing an imminent threat to our country. And so we need to know whether that intelligence was, in fact, accurate and whether it was done in the proper manner.

HEMMER: OK, so then let's say these hearings get under way. Would they be public?

ROCKEFELLER: My own view is that the American people have every right to have some participation in this. And that's a matter of discussion right now between a number of us who are trying to decide about this. But basically I think having -- if you have hearings and there isn't any openness to the public, basically you're just doing it inside lead enclosed secret rooms and it doesn't really have a lot of meaning.

HEMMER: Sir, then the second question, then, is if you have these hearings, the question you want to know is what? What answer does Senator Rockefeller want to find out about the intelligence that was on hand prior to the war?

ROCKEFELLER: I want to know that the intelligence that was collected prior to the war, prior to the vote on that resolution, was accurate, was well done, was untampered with and I have no reason to know that -- think that it was. I was worried when I read this morning that the -- which I had known -- that the vice president made a number of trips to the CIA with Scooter Libby, his top assistant. What was he doing there? That's not really our business, but it gives you...

HEMMER: Does that strike you as unusual though?

ROCKEFELLER: Yes, it does.

HEMMER: How so? The vice president involved in the national security matters and...

ROCKEFELLER: Intelligence is an executive agency, but the CIA and George Tenet, in whom I have enormous confidence, are really meant to be left alone to do their work. Analysts are a very special breed of people who are, who take pride, who know what they do and they're not a part of the political process. They do not make policy. They only do analysis. Then it's given over to the policymakers, who decide what to do.

HEMMER: I'm going to hit you on one more thing here before we run out of time.

They're excavating a site in west Baghdad again as of this week. Does that suggest perhaps that now there is intelligence that nothing has been seen or hear from Saddam Hussein, that he may have been in that building back in early April when it was hit by those four 2,000 pounds bombs?

ROCKEFELLER: Bill, my assumption on all of that has to be that until I know he's dead, I'm going to assume he's alive. Now, they're making that investigation. They have DNA. Will they be able to find something that corresponds to that DNA, any body part, anything in there? I simply don't know.

HEMMER: You don't know.

Senator Rockefeller, thank you, and we'll get your counterpart on next hour and see where we go from here.

ROCKEFELLER: Good.

HEMMER: Appreciate your time this morning.

ROCKEFELLER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com